CESA is built for Colorado. But some problems don't stop at a state line, and some can't be solved in one legislative session. So the work has four layers, together called the maveriQ Doctrine: a state bill, a federal bill, a regional compact, and a long-range framework.
Where each piece stands
- CESA (state): complete bill, version 16.2. Seeking a sponsor.
- US-RAPA (federal): working draft, version 8.0. Seeking a federal champion.
- Western States Coalition / GOARN (regional): a framework to start the conversation.
- The American Covenant (constitutional): a thought experiment measured in generations.
US-RAPA: when a crisis hits
The United States Rapid Action and Preparedness Act is a federal bill for the moments when things go badly: pandemics, cyber-attacks, disasters, attacks on elections, or someone trying to grab power they weren't given. Today that response often hangs on an executive's emergency declaration. US-RAPA spreads the decision out.
- A balanced national council of officials and civilian experts to oversee any activation.
- People can trigger it too. A citizen petition needs signatures from 3% of the voting-age population, spread across at least 25 states, so no single region can do it alone.
- Limits built in. Any activation is confined to the emergency at hand, and everything is published on a secure public portal.
- Deepfake rules for elections. AI-faked election content has to be disclosed, with satire, parody, opinion and news fully protected.
- The courts stay the courts. US-RAPA doesn't let a popular vote remove a Supreme Court justice. Serious misconduct goes to Congress through impeachment, the way the Constitution already says.
GOARN: the West, working together
The Western States Coalition is a proposed compact among seven neighbors: Colorado, California, Washington, Oregon, Nevada, New Mexico and Arizona. Its working network is called GOARN, the Government Operational & Regional Network. Those seven states already share wildfire, drought and the Colorado River. The compact lets them pool disaster response, manage water together, coordinate healthcare across state lines, and keep essential services running if federal help stalls.
The line I draw every time: this is cooperation, not secession. Think of it as insurance, built in advance. Read the framework (PDF).
The American Covenant: the generational conversation
The Constitution was written for an agrarian country of about four million people. The American Covenant asks what self-government could look like for 335 million. A few of its ideas:
- No single president. An executive council of seven, each elected nationally, with no one person able to start a war or declare an emergency alone.
- A Citizens' Assembly of ordinary people chosen by lottery, who must approve major laws.
- A Rights Guardian that steps in before your rights are violated, not years after.
It comes with hard guardrails: no violence, no suspended rights, no new powers for any one person, and every step open to court challenge. It would only ever happen through the Bridge Protocol, a phased, decade-long transition, with the consent of the governed. It's offered as an invitation to talk, not a finished plan. Read the framework (PDF).
Why put this out at all
Because the time to design better systems is before you need them. If you work in Congress, a governor's office, or another legislature and any of this interests you, come find us.
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